healy



F. HEALY.

STATION INDICATOR.

APPLICATION FILED APR.22. 1915.

1 1 95,0 1 1 Patented Aug. 15, 1916.

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F. HEALY.

STATION INDICATOR.

APPLICATION FILED APR.22, 1915.

Patented Aug. 15, 1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WITNESSES.

ATTORNEY F. HEALY.

sTATI0N INDICATOR. APPLICATION FILED APR.22, 1915.

1,1 95,01 1. Patented Aug. 15, 1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

k 0 1K O O n (I) \w\ '3 0 WITNESSES: A l/Vl/E/VTOR 9! f/7edg A TTOHIVEY FRANK HEALY,.OF PETROLIA, ONTARIO, CANADA.

STATION-INDICATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 15, 1916.

Application filed April 22, 1915. Serial No. 23,076.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it'lmown that I, FRANK HEALY, a citizen of Canada, and a resident of Petrolia, in the Province of Ontario and Dominion of Canada, have invented a new and Improved Station-Indicator, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to indicators for use on street cars or other railway coaches, and has particular reference to means for indicating to the passengers of the car the name of the neat street or station, means being provided whereby the conductor or operator of the car, by pressing a button, will initiate the means for changing the indicator so as to present to view the name of the next station.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification in which like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views, and in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of the improved device, somewhat diagrammatic in nature and with the face plate removed; Figs. 2, 3 and 4 are vertical transverse sectional views on the corresponding lines of Fig. 1; Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the controlling device; and Fig. 6 is a horizontal sectional view on the line 6-6 of Fig. 3.

The several parts of this device may be made of any suitable materials, and the relative sizes and proportions of the same, as well as the general design of the mech anism, may be varied to a considerable extent without departing from the spirit of the invention hereinafter more fully described and claimed.

By the term station as used herein I mean to cover broadly any point or place at which the car is intended to stop for the discharge of passengers. The termlcar will be interpreted broadly enough to cover any sort of railway vehicle or coach, and the term conductor will be understood as being applicable to any authorized official in charge of or employed upon the car.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, I show at 10 a casing designed to be secured preferably at the front end of the car and facing rearwardly or in plain view of the passengers on the car. The casing is of a substantial and rigid nature and closed preferably by a face plate or door 11 hinged at 12 to drop downward to display the mechanism carried within the casing. The casing is designed to comprise three principal compartments, A, B and C, separated by verticalpartitlons 13 and 14. To the top of the caslng are secured cleats 15 and 16 againstwhich the vertical partitions 13 and 14 are held by hooks 17 or their equivalent secured to the bottom of the casing. The partitions preferably extend into grooves 18 in the rear wall of the casing, as indicated in Fig. 6. By unhooking the hooks 17 the partitions may be slipped forwardly slightly to release them from their rear grooves, and then, by a slight movement toward the left, they, with the mechanism supported thereon, may be removed freely from the casing for the purpose of change or renewal of the indicating belts or other parts.

The compartment A is the largest and is designed to accommodate the display portions of the device described more in detail below. The compartment B carries the motor and controlling mechanism, and. the other compartment is a place for convenient location of the battery which is used in initiating the action of the motor for changing the station names.

The names of the stations are printed, painted or otherwise placed in regular order upon aflexible band or belt 18, one end of which is secured to a roller 19 journaled in suitable bearings in the upper portion of the compartment A and longitudinally of the casing. The other end of the belt is secured to another roller 20 journaled below the roller 19 in the compartment A and parallel thereto. The intermediate portion of the belt passes idly over a display roller 21 close to the face plate 11 and just within or at the rear of a window 22 in said face plate through which the several station names are visible from the interior of the car. The beltis maintained in proper tensional relation with the display roller by means of smaller rollers 23 and 24 journaled at their ends in movable bearings 25 I each pivoted at 26 to one of the partitions and acted upon by a spring 27 serving to wheel 32. Journaled loosely upon the shaft 31 on opposite sides of the ratchet wheel are gear wheels 33 and 34 of the same size and having teeth of the same character, both wheels meshing with a working pinion 35 journaled in both of the plates 30 and extending at one end, as shown at 35, for detachable connection with the main roller 19 of the display mechanism. A pawl 36 cooperating with the ratchet 32 is pivotally connected to one spoke of the wheel 33 and the normal tendency of the spring to unwind exerted upon the shaft, ratchet wheel and pawl tends to rotate the wheel 33 in the counterclockwise direction indicated in Fig. 3, and since the pinion 35 cooperates with both gears 33 and 34, these gears will be caused to rotate or otherwise act in unison.

Secured to the pinion 35 is a gear 37 meshing in turn with a pinion 38 upon whose shaft is fixed a cam wheel 39 and gear 40. This last mentioned gear meshes with a pinion 41 secured rigidly concentrically with a gear 42 having stop pins 43 secured thereto at the same distance from the axis thereof. This gear 42 also meshes with a pinion 44 to which is connected a governor fan 45. The action of the spring to cause a slight degree of rotation of the pinion 35 will cause, through the speed gearing just described, a comparatively rapid rotation of the pinion 44 and governor fan 45. The cam wheel 39 is circular but for a plurality of depressions 46 shown herein as formed on opposite sides thereof. While the gearing illustrated is susceptible of considerable variation in design, I prefer tomake a ratio between the pinion 41 and gearing 40 of 1 :3, so that for each half rotation of the gear 40 and its cam wheel 39, the wheel 42 will be rotated once and a half. The gear 34 is provided with any suitably arranged radial notches 47 shown herein as constituting continuations of every third space between teeth. This, too, is stated as an example and is not to be interpreted as a limitation for the reason that the angular space between the notches 47 is intended to represent the angular amount of rotation of the wheels 33 and 34 sufficient to change the indicator belt from one station to the next. Irrespective, however, of the angular distance between the notches 47, it will be understood that the names on the belt 18 will be spaced from each other in accordance with the extent of rotation of the roller l9 permitted by the controlling devices.

The controlling means cooperating with the gearing above described comprises a rock shaft 48 journaled at its ends in the side plates 30 and having a series of four arms 49, 50, 51 and 52 secured rigidly thereto and projecting radially therefrom. The normal position of this controlling device is shown in Fig. 3, the arm 49 projecting downwardly while all the other arms project upwardly and rearwardly on the rear side of a vertical plane intersecting the axis of the rock shaft. The weight of the arms 50, 51 and 52 serves to hold or tends to hold the controlling device in the normal position stated. The arm 50 terminates in a finger 50 adaptedto extend into the notches 47. The arm 51 terminates in a finger 51 arranged substantially parallel to the axis of the rock shaft and adapted to drop into the recesses 46 of the cam wheel 39, and the arm 52 terminates in a hook 52 and an upwardly projecting finger 52. The hook is adapted to cooperate with one or the other of the pins 43 of the wheel 42, and when so cooperating will cause a positive stoppage of the gearing and at the same time the finger 50 will drop into one of the notches 47. The gearing is so designed and the depressions 46 and pins 43 are so arranged with respect to the gearing that when the finger 51 drops into one of the depressions 46, the hook 52 will drop in to the path of the approaching pin 43 while the finger 50 drops into one of the deep notches.

Adjacent the motor device is an electromagnet 53, the armature 54 of which, held normally away from the coils by means of a spring 55, is adapted to strike against the finger 49 of the arm 49 when the magnet is energized. This action of the arm 49 causes sufiicient rotation of the rock shaft 48 to lift all of the other arms out of normal position, setting the gearing free. The operation of the gearing thus being initiated, the gearing will contnue to operate under the force of the mainspring until the finger 51 drops into the next notch 46, when the motor will be stopped as above described. The electromagnet is in circuit with a battery 56, circuit wires 57 being normally disconnected but adapted to be connected by means of a suitable push button 58 within reach of the conductor. After stopping at a station and when it is desirable to change the indicator to disclose the name of the next station, the conductor, by simply pressing a button 58, will cause through the electromagnetic devices the initiation of the operation of the motor to change the name of the station as already set forth. It is obvious that these devices may be duplicated at opposite ends of the car, the belts of the two devices being arranged with their station names in opposite directions and only the indicator at the front end of the car being functional while the car is going in one direction.

To reset the indicator for a second trip after the belt will have been wound upon the roller 19, the conductor may restore the belt to its normal or original position by the use of a crank, such as indicated at 59, ap' plied either to the projecting end 31 of the spring shaft 31 or else to a countershaft 60 adjacent the axis of the roller 20 and of which the shaft 61 is an extension. The shafts 60 and 61 are connected by spur gearing 62. By turning the crank, therefore, in a clockwise direction as indicated in Fig. 3,

the roller 20 will be operated in a counterclockwise direction, causing the belt to be rewound thereon. The unwinding of the belt from the roller 19 will cause the spring to be rewound by the action of the pinion 35 upon the gears 33 and 34, the pawl 36 being connected to the pinion 33 acting through the ratchet wheel to positively rotate the shaft 31 to rewind the spring. During this action the finger 50 will be held out of contact with the gear 34 by virtue of the cam wheel 39 and the riding of the pins 43 beneath the finger 52 of the lever 52. When the rewinding operation is stopped, the wheel 42 may operate in its forward direction slightly but will be stopped immediately by the action of the hook 52 upon a pin 43.

1. In a station indicator, the combination of a pair of rollers, a station belt winding on and off said rollers, means for operating one of the rollers to rewind the belt, a shaft, a spring having one end secured to the shaft to wind thereon, a second shaft operatively connected with the other roller, gearing between the said shafts, controlling mechanism, whereby the first shaft may be turned to rewind the spring when the roller upon which the station belt rewinds, is operated, and electrical means under the control of the conductor for rendering the controlling mechanism inactive.

2. In a station indicator, the combination of a pair of rollers, a station belt winding on and off said rollers, means for operating one of the said rollers to rewind the belt, a shaft, two gear wheels loosely mounted on the shaft, a pawl and ratchet mechanism for connecting one of the gear wheels with the shaft, a spring secured to the shaft to wind thereon, a second shaft having one end operatively connected with the other roller, a pinion on the second shaft and meshing with the gear wheels of the first shaft, and controlling mechanism for permitting the first shaft to be turned to wind the spring when the station belt is being rewound, said controlling mechanism including a member adapted to engage and lock the loose gear wheel when the controlling mechanism is in operative position.

3. In a station indicator, a pair of rollers, a station belt winding on and off said rollers, means for operating one of the rollers to wind the belt, a shaft, two gear wheels loosely mounted on the shaft, one of the gear wheels being provided with notches between its teeth, a pawl and ratchet mechanism for connecting the other gear wheel with the shaft, a spring secured to the shaft to wind thereon, a second shaft having one end operatively-connected with the other roller, a pinion on the second shaft and meshing with the said loose gear wheels, a train of gearing operated from said second shaft, one of the gears of which is provided with stop pins and the shaft of another gear carries a cam, a rock shaft having four arms, one of which engages the notches of the loose gear wheel, the second one engages the cam, and the third one engages the stop pins, and an electromagnet, the armature of which engages the fourth arm of the rock shaft when the magnet is energized to rock said shaft to disengage the other arms.

4. In a device of the character set forth, the combination with a plurality of parallel rollers and a station name belt acting thereover, of a motor device to actuate said rollers and belt, said motor device including a main spring, means to secure one end of the spring in fixed position, a shaft to which the other end of the spring is connected, a ratchet wheel secured to the shaft, a pair of spaced gear wheels mounted loosely upon the shaft on opposite sides of the ratchet wheel, a pawl carried by one of the gears and engaging normally with the ratchet wheel, a long working pinion meshing with both of said gears and detachably connected to one of said rollers, a train of speed gearing driven from the pinion and terminating in a speed governor fan, controlling devices for the gearing comprising a rock shaft having a downwardly projecting arm and a plu rality of other arms extending upwardly and laterally at one side of the vertical plane of said arm and shaft, one of said plurality of arms cooperating with one of the large gears, a circular cam wheel having notches cooperating with the second arm, and a pin wheel cooperating with the last arm in normal position, and means under the immediate control of the conductor acting upon the first mentioned arm to cause the rock shaft to lift all of the other arms out of normal position to allow the motor to operate the belt from one station name to the next at which time the last mentioned arm of the plurality will engage a pin of the pin wheel and the second arm of the plurality will drop into one of the cam wheel notches, substantially as set forth.

FRANK HEALY.

Witnesses:

WALTER P. RAWLEY, NEWELL HEALY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Eatents, Washington, D. C. 

